Water chiller ideas?

You know, this is a really strange tack the thread has taken; I mean, who out there is trying to turn a refrigerator into an air conditioner? NO ONE, because we all know refrigerators make lousy/inefficient AC units.

SO WHY THE FUCK ARE Y'ALL TRYING TO DO THE SAME DUMBASS THING WITH CHILLERS?!?!

Seriously, WTF?

They make lots of good chillers these days. What's wrong with buying one and using it as intended?

Most of these homespun mechanical black magic projects never work at all and the rest either burn the fridge compressor out or use multiples of the necessary electricity. Usually both.

Here's the secret; THERE IS NO SECRET! If you want water chilling, do what you did for air temperatures; buy a good quality unit with more capacity than you expect to need. If you disrespect the need for doing it by getting an inadequate unit then don't be surprised when you get shitty results.

/rant

HydroRed said:

What gph pump are you using? Could you slow down the flow of the pump if it is adjustable to achieve colder temps? The slower the fluid moves through the coil, the stronger the cooling properties will be on the nute solution. If it is flowing too quick, it never gets a chance to cool the fluid or to keep the coil cold enough to be effective.

Click to expand...

While it's true that the nutes will come back to the rez colder with the slower velocity over the same amount of time the faster moving nutes will have a much higher volume so it works out that the actual cooling effect is the same in the rez overall.

When I was taking my chem courses one was called Physical Chemistry where we studied fluid dynamics and had to work out problems like that, loss of pressure with bends in the pipes, breaking strengths of all sorts of materials etc etc.

I liked that course. Got to build working models of all sorts of things, bend, break and pull things apart. Lots of stuff to play with.

If the pressure is a concern then put a T on the outlet and a valve on one leg of the T going back to the rez so you can open or close that valve to raise or lower the pressure in the line feeding to the coil.

ttystikk said:

You know, this is a really strange tack the thread has taken; I mean, who out there is trying to turn a refrigerator into an air conditioner? NO ONE, because we all know refrigerators make lousy/inefficient AC units.

SO WHY THE FUCK ARE Y'ALL TRYING TO DO THE SAME DUMBASS THING WITH CHILLERS?!?!

Seriously, WTF?

They make lots of good chillers these days. What's wrong with buying one and using it as intended?

Most of these homespun mechanical black magic projects never work at all and the rest either burn the fridge compressor out or use multiples of the necessary electricity. Usually both.

Here's the secret; THERE IS NO SECRET! If you want water chilling, do what you did for air temperatures; buy a good quality unit with more capacity than you expect to need. If you disrespect the need for doing it by getting an inadequate unit then don't be surprised when you get shitty results.

/rant

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Aren't you a ray of f'n sunshine.

For a lot of us it's either DIY or do without and the stuff I make to keep going works just fine thank you very much.

Must be nice to have deep pockets Mr Trump. How 'bout you buy me a chiller for Xmas and I'll pass mine on to a poorer grower.

No for you!

OldMedUser said:

Aren't you a ray of f'n sunshine.

For a lot of us it's either DIY or do without and the stuff I make to keep going works just fine thank you very much.

Must be nice to have deep pockets Mr Trump. How 'bout you buy me a chiller for Xmas and I'll pass mine on to a poorer grower.

No for you!

Click to expand...

The point I'm making remains valid. Don't expect pro level results from hacking up equipment that was never designed for the purpose.

It's the 'something for nothing' mindset I'm trying to address here.

Fuck, if you want a real solution, use coco. After fucking with RDWC for half a goddamned decade, I switched and my results are better than ever.

And I still use my chiller. Now I use it for HVAC exclusively. Turns out it's cheaper to run than AC, by 30%.

Or, continue to beat your head against the walls of physics. There's no free lunch there.

If you want to improve efficiency, have a look at the back of the unit, where all the heat is coming from. Is that in your grow room? If so, why? What else could you be doing with all that heat?

Hint: winter's coming.

Peace, brother. I'm just trying to save some crops and brain damage here.

ttystikk said:

The point I'm making remains valid. Don't expect pro level results from hacking up equipment that was never designed for the purpose.

It's the 'something for nothing' mindset I'm trying to address here.

Fuck, if you want a real solution, use coco. After fucking with RDWC for half a goddamned decade, I switched and my results are better than ever.

And I still use my chiller. Now I use it for HVAC exclusively. Turns out it's cheaper to run than AC, by 30%.

Or, continue to beat your head against the walls of physics. There's no free lunch there.

If you want to improve efficiency, have a look at the back of the unit, where all the heat is coming from. Is that in your grow room? If so, why? What else could you be doing with all that heat?

Hint: winter's coming.

Peace, brother. I'm just trying to save some crops and brain damage here.

Click to expand...

If people didnt hack up equipment that was never designed for the purpose, you'd still be using HPS.

HydroRed said:

If people didnt hack up equipment that was never designed for the purpose, you'd still be using HPS.

Click to expand...

Not true. LED didn't come from a hacked up streetlight.

There is a difference between creative utilisation and slaughtering defenseless refrigerators for unholy purposes.

Innovative engineering uses the laws of physics to its advantage, what is being advocated here is simply trying to break them.

ttystikk said:

The point I'm making remains valid. Don't expect pro level results from hacking up equipment that was never designed for the purpose.

It's the 'something for nothing' mindset I'm trying to address here.

Fuck, if you want a real solution, use coco. After fucking with RDWC for half a goddamned decade, I switched and my results are better than ever.

And I still use my chiller. Now I use it for HVAC exclusively. Turns out it's cheaper to run than AC, by 30%.

Or, continue to beat your head against the walls of physics. There's no free lunch there.

If you want to improve efficiency, have a look at the back of the unit, where all the heat is coming from. Is that in your grow room? If so, why? What else could you be doing with all that heat?

Hint: winter's coming.

Peace, brother. I'm just trying to save some crops and brain damage here.

Click to expand...

Being a long time member like you I wonder about your reasons to still be here. What's your motivation to storm into a friendly thread and act like a bully? It's boorish and not the way adults should act in a forum of like-minded people sharing ideas about how to better serve their plants.

My old man always used to say, "If you got nothing nice to say then say nothing at all". He was a wise man and I wish now that I had listened to him more when I was younger.

I never need A/C and any heat thrown off my cooler is a bonus so my exhaust fan runs more to bring in cool, CO2 rich air from the much larger area of the basement outside the grow room where the temp never excedes 60F in summer. No outside air comes into my filtered grow space.

OldMedUser said:

Being a long time member like you I wonder about your reasons to still be here. What's your motivation to storm into a friendly thread and act like a bully? It's boorish and not the way adults should act in a forum of like-minded people sharing ideas about how to better serve their plants.

My old man always used to say, "If you got nothing nice to say then say nothing at all". He was a wise man and I wish now that I had listened to him more when I was younger.

I never need A/C and any heat thrown off my cooler is a bonus so my exhaust fan runs more to bring in cool, CO2 rich air from the much larger area of the basement outside the grow room where the temp never excedes 60F in summer. No outside air comes into my filtered grow space.

Click to expand...

I have lots of good reasons to be here. I'll let you guess at them.

I'm not bullying, I'm INFORMING. There is a difference. It's called...

wait for it...

Experience.
School of hard knocks.
Knowhow.

Oftentimes, the ability to do a thing is not the same as it being a good idea to do so.

This particular game is also known as a technological blind alley.

If you don't want to listen to someone who's been there and trod the same path that's on you. Others might appreciate the heads up so they don't waste their time.

I got no problem with people having a different opinion than I do but I do mind them being all sanctimonious about it especially when they weren't even part of the discussion prior to their outburst.

Done with all this. On to the inefficient methods that still manage to get the job done.

At what temp should the nutes be when they are added?

I was under the impression that 18c to 20 c was ideal (66ishF)

before i came here to do this i was a distiller

the general idea is sound but the equipment used for it is under powered ...ttystikk is 100% correct

a mini firg is 100% the wrong equipment to use .....the simple fact is u are using air transfer to cool it which is the one of the most ineffective way unless u are passing high volume of air over it with fins to increase the cooling like house ac condensers or car radiators

the 2nd thing is the amount of coil vs the power of the pump .......to little coil to strong of pumps


for this method to work on a lvl that would actually be useful there is 1 way to do it but the electrical cost/build cost of doing it more then the cost of a piece of gear designed to do it

the 1 way to do it is simple u need a large chest deep freezer modified with a water proof liner .....then would need to coil the loops tighter to get more area in there and have several coils in there to prolong the exposure ....then u need to fill the freezer with water half way up so half of each coil is locked in ice .......then it just matter of little math on the amount of water vs the speed of the pump.......and the piping to do this needs to be stainless steel (copper is antimicrobial .....it kills the little guys it is one of the reason Egyptian cites worked they used copper for piping killing off the stuff before they drank it....other was beer )


your 2 big reason for DYI does not work pass the frozen water bottles or the ground trick
1 the cost of energy to keep a freezer like that when u are adding in heat ...means the system will run as long as pumps are running warm water in
2 the cost of stainless steel piping the tools to turn into a working coil ......even working with fittings u need to tig wield it together

before anyone thinks of getting a old car radiator and making something out of it......DO NOT they use lead in all of them to build them the PH would leach lead into the feed and pass that to the roots and the plant ........u will go mad it does really fucked up shit to brain .....I REPEAT DO NOT USE A RADIATORS FROM CARS FOR ANYTHING TO DO WITH WEED OR SHINE

Lucky Luke said:

At what temp should the nutes be when they are added?

I was under the impression that 18c to 20 c was ideal (66ishF)

Click to expand...

that is a little high but it does get the most active feeding ........your plants will bloom and feeding will change keep eye on PH and water lvls

personally during mid week i liked to add in 1 gallons worth a feed into the system for each plant (replace what they took)
if u notice the plants are droopy ......increase the amount of air going tho the water and look into micro pore oxygenator air stones (they make tiny bubbles they work so good for this shit )

justugh said:

before i came here to do this i was a distiller

the general idea is sound but the equipment used for it is under powered ...ttystikk is 100% correct

a mini firg is 100% the wrong equipment to use .....the simple fact is u are using air transfer to cool it which is the one of the most ineffective way unless u are passing high volume of air over it with fins to increase the cooling like house ac condensers or car radiators

the 2nd thing is the amount of coil vs the power of the pump .......to little coil to strong of pumps


for this method to work on a lvl that would actually be useful there is 1 way to do it but the electrical cost/build cost of doing it more then the cost of a piece of gear designed to do it

the 1 way to do it is simple u need a large chest deep freezer modified with a water proof liner .....then would need to coil the loops tighter to get more area in there and have several coils in there to prolong the exposure ....then u need to fill the freezer with water half way up so half of each coil is locked in ice .......then it just matter of little math on the amount of water vs the speed of the pump.......and the piping to do this needs to be stainless steel (copper is antimicrobial .....it kills the little guys it is one of the reason Egyptian cites worked they used copper for piping killing off the stuff before they drank it....other was beer )


your 2 big reason for DYI does not work pass the frozen water bottles or the ground trick
1 the cost of energy to keep a freezer like that when u are adding in heat ...means the system will run as long as pumps are running warm water in
2 the cost of stainless steel piping the tools to turn into a working coil ......even working with fittings u need to tig wield it together

before anyone thinks of getting a old car radiator and making something out of it......DO NOT they use lead in all of them to build them the PH would leach lead into the feed and pass that to the roots and the plant ........u will go mad it does really fucked up shit to brain .....I REPEAT DO NOT USE A RADIATORS FROM CARS FOR ANYTHING TO DO WITH WEED OR SHINE

Click to expand...

I don't use the fridge idea, just put some comments up in that subject. I'm using a water cooler that I explained in an earlier post with pics. The cooler is only on 15min/hr with the lights on and 15 every 1.5 hrs in the dark. The temp dial on back is as low as it goes and the tank on the cooler has a thick blanket of white wall insulation as does the tub it's cooling. I could easily keep a 45gal drum chilled with similar insulation if I cranked it up. For $14 it's a hell of a deal.



I can't speak for everyone but I have a lot of fun coming up with a solution to a need then making it work. Since I was 4 and got a good whoopin' for taking my old man's alarm clock apart I've been taking stuff apart and fixing it much better than that alarm clock. I've worked in most trades for years each but never got tickets in any. Finally got a diploma in chemistry in my mid 30s that had a full year of uni level physics and math classes that went up to and included calculus.

Figuring out shit helps keep my mind sharp too. I'm 62, had a few minor strokes and not long ago found out my birth mother died after ten years of dementia at 75. Not going to go that way if you grok my meaning.

Stoners are smarter than you think so I doubt anyone is going to use a car radiator to run nutes through tho a nice new SS transmission cooler should be OK. Hmmm . . .

OldMedUser said:

I don't use the fridge idea, just put some comments up in that subject. I'm using a water cooler that I explained in an earlier post with pics. The cooler is only on 15min/hr with the lights on and 15 every 1.5 hrs in the dark. The temp dial on back is as low as it goes and the tank on the cooler has a thick blanket of white wall insulation as does the tub it's cooling. I could easily keep a 45gal drum chilled with similar insulation if I cranked it up. For $14 it's a hell of a deal.

View attachment 3812874

I can't speak for everyone but I have a lot of fun coming up with a solution to a need then making it work. Since I was 4 and got a good whoopin' for taking my old man's alarm clock apart I've been taking stuff apart and fixing it much better than that alarm clock. I've worked in most trades for years each but never got tickets in any. Finally got a diploma in chemistry in my mid 30s that had a full year of uni level physics and math classes that went up to and included calculus.

Figuring out shit helps keep my mind sharp too. I'm 62, had a few minor strokes and not long ago found out my birth mother died after ten years of dementia at 75. Not going to go that way if you grok my meaning.

Stoners are smarter than you think so I doubt anyone is going to use a car radiator to run nutes through tho a nice new SS transmission cooler should be OK. Hmmm . . .

Click to expand...

that u not what i am saying .......i was talking about the pics up above i sawl as i was scanning the string ......it looks like a stil worm in a mini frig

i am 37 with nothing to do but learn and work on subjects that keep me from coming up with other projects i should not really work on as it could be thought of as bad

distilling was fun and made good money ....the by product of it is natural co2 to dump in the grow room ( increase the buds weight and get sell able drink from the mash buckets)

i built in indoor electric stil ...so it could be run safe and under cover ........very proud of it

i know the cooling subject well .......it all breaks down to getting a unit building one is not worth the cost or the power bill it will cause

as for what u did almost 100% right .......u forgot tho about moisture build up what u have there is a mold breeding ground from the condensation water spills ....there is always a water barrier in place before they lay anything like that to avoid just that in the construction trade .......u want to remove that bleach wash the outside of it to kill anything go get foam board 1 inch thick build a box around it on 5 sides and then paint the top of the tote in flat white paint (rem to scar the lid so it does not flake)...now and then spray down the side with a 1bleach to 4 water part mix after while the bleach will make crystals and then u do not have to worry about it anymore anytime it gets wet for spores the crystals will go liquid and kill on contact

the big trouble for u now is the top as it is blue and i am not sure the mil thickness .......the light is still able to get direct exposure to the lid so it is absorbing some of the light waves heating it up above the air temp .....the other thing is the color it allows blue if the thickness is under 70mils it will allow light to pass into the roots and can cause algae and other bad micros to grow and effect your plants


i am not trying to be ass or anything i am just trying to pass the info on .......and as for smart shit i know but still for safety it should of and was said in case they are freaking and looking for any possible cheap answer or really stoned

jerry rigging is a way of life from where i come from .......now image a stoner with a iq well above normal but got cursed with bi polar ...the side effect of manic modes is hyper productivity with lack of attention span but the effect of thc and cbds counters the lvl of the manic and the lack of attention span .....i can not get super uber mega stoned it only makes me normal thanks to the natural chemical imbalance in my head .....it acts a lvling agent for me it keeps the depression from crippling me and the manic modes from getting to the point were i can really hurt alot of ppl just because i was bored and wanted to see if i could do it ..........this is how i am able to out smoke anymore flower or dabs they are getting fucked up i am getting normal

i am that guy the one that should never be with out weed .....if i am out i should be taken to a hospital and put on some major drugs ...ideally 300 mgs of seroquil and 5 mgs of lorazpam every 12 hours ..

sorry for the ramble ......but check out the info i told u about yours.....u will hate me less

OldMedUser said:

Copper is a no-no as the acidic nutes will leach lots of copper and eventually rot the tubing right out.

Almost killed isn't dead so I hope you enjoyed the smoke.

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I understand metal will get cold and better to chill the water, but what about a regular old garden hose? Or one of them hoses that the sprayer thing on the sink hooks up to?

OldMedUser said:

I got no problem with people having a different opinion than I do but I do mind them being all sanctimonious about it especially when they weren't even part of the discussion prior to their outburst.

Done with all this. On to the inefficient methods that still manage to get the job done.

Click to expand...

Go beat your head against the laws of physics then, with my blessing. Just don't say you weren't warned.

'Cannabis growers are the most ignorant and arrogant people!' -one of my suppliers who usually deals with farmers.

Dr.funkenstien said:

I understand metal will get cold and better to chill the water, but what about a regular old garden hose? Or one of them hoses that the sprayer thing on the sink hooks up to?

Click to expand...

The plastic/PVC is an insulator and doesn't transfer heat well.

OldMedUser said:

I don't use the fridge idea, just put some comments up in that subject. I'm using a water cooler that I explained in an earlier post with pics. The cooler is only on 15min/hr with the lights on and 15 every 1.5 hrs in the dark. The temp dial on back is as low as it goes and the tank on the cooler has a thick blanket of white wall insulation as does the tub it's cooling. I could easily keep a 45gal drum chilled with similar insulation if I cranked it up. For $14 it's a hell of a deal.

View attachment 3812874

I can't speak for everyone but I have a lot of fun coming up with a solution to a need then making it work. Since I was 4 and got a good whoopin' for taking my old man's alarm clock apart I've been taking stuff apart and fixing it much better than that alarm clock. I've worked in most trades for years each but never got tickets in any. Finally got a diploma in chemistry in my mid 30s that had a full year of uni level physics and math classes that went up to and included calculus.

Figuring out shit helps keep my mind sharp too. I'm 62, had a few minor strokes and not long ago found out my birth mother died after ten years of dementia at 75. Not going to go that way if you grok my meaning.

Stoners are smarter than you think so I doubt anyone is going to use a car radiator to run nutes through tho a nice new SS transmission cooler should be OK. Hmmm . . .

Click to expand...

Stoners are both smarter AND more stupid than that. It's one big reason why regulation in the industry is a good thing.

HydroRed said:

What gph pump are you using? Could you slow down the flow of the pump if it is adjustable to achieve colder temps? The slower the fluid moves through the coil, the stronger the cooling properties will be on the nute solution. If it is flowing too quick, it never gets a chance to cool the fluid or to keep the coil cold enough to be effective.

Click to expand...

I have a 264gph pump adjusted to keep the chiller filled about half way 24/7 and a 158gph pump slowly pumping back to the tote, keeps temps at 66°, my plant loves it!

HydroRed said:

What gph pump are you using? Could you slow down the flow of the pump if it is adjustable to achieve colder temps? The slower the fluid moves through the coil, the stronger the cooling properties will be on the nute solution. If it is flowing too quick, it never gets a chance to cool the fluid or to keep the coil cold enough to be effective.

Click to expand...

I made that thing years ago, its keeping my beer cold now.